After getting no commitment from the young lady at the help desk, about whether any technician would ever come out, I went to the Cable Onda Office this morning. The attendant there said he would schedule a technician to come between 1 PM and 6 PM. He got here around 5 PM.

He was a very nice young man and conscientiously listened to to my experiences. I showed him the log of speed tests that I had taken over the last couple of weeks.

He ran the speed test on my laptop and the test was consistent with my past tests. It was interesting that he ran the same speed test and not one by CO. I was happy to see that.

He said the ping was much too high and should be between 80 and 125. Apparently when you are getting a higher ping than that range, then all bets are off and the rest of the results may not be reliable either.

Seeing this, he switched out my modem to a new one. It took a long time for CO to configure the new modem. We then reran the speed tests, and the first test was good. However, subsequent tests varied. He saw that the tests were not consistent.

He said to use this modem for the next couple of days and he would have to do some more research and would call me in a couple days. I expect that may be in January.

I have his number and will call him on January 2, if I haven’t heard from him before then. The good news is I finally got someone to come out to the house and see the problem. I am confident the problem will now be resolved even though it wasn’t today.

This also proved that calling the help desk is a waste of time. It is better to go to the main office.

The American Citizen Services Unit would like to inform U.S. citizens that Panama’s Ministry of Health (MOH) notified residents of Tole, Chiriqui that since this past Friday, December 26th, it has been safe to use the water for drinking, cooking, and all housework. The Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (IDAAN for its acronym in Spanish) recommends all residents run their faucets for two hours to guarantee the cleanliness of their water sources. For the complete notification from Panama’s Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (IDAAN), please visit: